Tony Blair’s removal of Saddam Hussein was welcomed by the Iraqis
SIR – No, Charles Moore (Comment, October 26) is not necessarily “in a minority of one” in thinking “Tony Blair’s CNN account of his role in the Iraq war and what he got wrong reasonable on almost every point”.
Mr Blair admits blame for the poor – one might say non-existent – post-war planning. But there can be little doubt that the Iraqis were initially in favour of the action taken. The Oxford Research International survey of March 2004 asked 2,652 Iraqis: “Is life better now?” In response, 70 per cent said yes. The University of Baghdad asked Iraqis two months later: “Will the interim government improve life?” In reply, 63 per cent said yes.
What happened after that does not affect the fact that the Iraqis wanted to be shot of Saddam Hussein.
Edward Thomas
Eastbourne, East Sussex
SIR – Mr Blair took Britain to war to make a regime change in Iraq with no alternative administration in waiting, no plans for winning hearts and minds, no plans to restore the infrastructure, security, prosperity and rule of law to a better standard than before and no plans for a timely and orderly withdrawal.
The absence of any one of these plans should have prevented the war. It showed a lamentable lack of military and political awareness and ignorance of historical precedence. It upset the balance of power in the Middle East and created a vacuum into which even more malevolent interests stepped. It was an inexcusable blunder.
Peter Wedderburn-Ogilvy
Petersfield, Hampshire
SIR – Mr Blair created the smokescreen of weapons of mass destruction and continually returned to the UN in the pretence that the decision to go to war in Iraq was made at the last minute.
This was because it was important to Mr Blair not to split the Labour Party and rely on Tory votes. This policy prevented proper planning and left the British Army unprepared with regard to equipment and post-invasion strategy. The effect was to increase casualties and produce what Andrew Gilligan called “a military humiliation for the UK” in Basra.
Lorne Smith
Churchover, Warwickshire
SIR – Mr Blair’s act of contrition surprised me. Throughout his premiership and the long-drawn-out inquiry into the second Iraq war he has been adamant that he was right. This was despite the breakdown of law and order in the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan which can be traced back to the second Gulf war and the imposition of “democracy” on nations that operate differently from the West.
He and George W Bush could have found far more pressing tyrants than Saddam Hussein. There are a plethora of despots round the world, not only in Africa, who act with a total lack of decency and whose removal need not have worldwide repercussions.
Andy Robinson
Canterbury, Kent